Trying New Things...

12.9.07

Today is Sunday, also known as the day of rest. Lauren and I stayed home this morning and made snowflakes to decorate our apartment. After we were done making and stringing up our delicate little flakes of snow, we sat down to a breakfast of toast and eggs. Lauren is a very good maker of breakfasts. Oishii desu!

After about four months of living here in Japan, I am increasingly gaining the courage to go out and do things on my own. This past Tuesday, I went to Tokyo to get some tourist information. I had to stop and ask questions a few times, but I eventually found the tourist office that was tucked away in a corner of some random building in the center of Tokyo. I know I've said this before - about going around Japan by myself - but I must always refer back to the feeling of accomplishment that comes from doing things on your own in a country where your first language is not the first language of most.

So anyway, I met up with my friend Johanne in Shibuya just outside the Hachiko-mae exit, and we walked a little ways until we found our dinner destination; a teeny vegan restaurant called Vegan Healing Cafe. We had to walk up a little stairway lined with people waiting around, and just when we thought we were lost, I saw the restaurant's sign. It was a small little place, sitting about 15 people at the most. The inside was warm and the air was perfumed with the smell of seasonings that reminded me of the Food Coop at Binghamton University. I had felafel burg and Johanne had a Hawaiian dish. As we enjoyed our delicious food, we talked about life and all its amazingness.

I figured out how to take the metro home all by myself. Since metro is cheaper for long distances, I had two reasons to feel as if I had overcome a challenging race; I had saved money and I had deciphered the complexities of the Tokyo metro network.